A Walk in the Garden

To begin our exploration of the Passion of Christ we descended into the Kidron Valley, one of three valleys that run through Jerusalem.  The Passion refers to the week leading up to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and is remembered by the church during Holy Week.  In the area of the Garden of Gettsemane we began at Dominus Flavit, the Lord Weeps.  He wept because it was in this moment, alone and separate from His apostles, Jesus asks the Lord to "take this cup from me."(Luke 22:42)  While He is fully God, Jesus reveals that He too is fully human.  Yet He seeks to do God's will and so He submits to what He knows will ultimately be His death.  The view from the sanctuary in Dominus Flavit faces west across the Kidron valley to where the temple once stood in Jerusalem but where now the focal point is the Dome of the Rock. (see picture)

Along with the Garden, the Mt of Olives is also the site of hundreds and maybe even thousands of tombs.  The dead cover the hill because the top of the hill is where Jesus ascended to heaven and so too it's believed that He will return in the same fashion.  So those souls buried here on the Mt of Hope (as Fr Andrew refers to it) do so because they hope that they will be the first to be reborn.  Thus, while we did linger under an olive tree as we contemplated Jesus' time in the garden before being betrayed by Judas, the photo ops were graveyard heavy (I was too deep in meditation to take a picture of the garden!).
Our journey continued in relative chronological order as we visited Ecce Homo, the place where Jesus' mock trial by Pontius Pilate was held and Jesus was ultimately condemned by the people He was there to save.  Ecce homo is Latin for Behold the Man, what a fitting place for us to visit! The name refers to John's gospel in chapter 19 when Pontius sarcastically says to the people, after clothing Jesus in a royal robe and a crown of thorns, "Behold the Man." Pilate says this just after saying that he found no fault with Jesus yet the crowds demand for Him to be crucified.  The scene took place on the Roman tiles in court and those same stones are still there today, though they are beneath the contemporary street level.  Like so much other history in the city, it has been buried by time and construction.  You can still see ruts in the stones where carts traveled millenias ago.  Wow.  Powerful.

Then we walked back through the old city for lunch and our first "free afternoon" began.  We didn't stop and returned to the old city to the very epicenter of where it all began in Jerusalem - the City of David.  The City of David is the oldest and most original part of Jerusalem.  It's also just a small section of the old city as it was added to by conqueror after conqueror.  The city has now been turned into a museum.   Along with having a beautiful piece by Chihuly, there is an animated movie that takes you briskly through the history of conquerors of Jerusalem and some very stunning panoramas and some very old rocks.
After our relatively quick visit we sauntered back from the Jaffa Gate to the Damscus Gate along the top of the ramparts.  The ramparts, or the walls of the old city, are very illuminating because it allows you to look down on the city from a new angle.  From up high and beyond the narrow confines of the maze of alleyways that are full of shops, cats, vendors, food of every kind, huge hanging pigs, children running everywhere, tourists, and general congestion of it all, you get a picture of a real city.  Seeing the apartment buildings, the roof top patios, the school yards with children playing (that's where they all go!), the parked cars, the hanging laundry and the one thing that is consistent across all religions and races - the big black solar water heaters dot every single rooftop in this entire country - it all really makes me realize that this is actually a functioning home for thousands and not just the bargaining bonanza that you see from the tourist point of view.
I have really begun to love this city and I can see why so many others love it as well.